Hanja Lesson 23: 者, 士, 自, 個, 主

In this lesson, you will learn five characters that relate to people or individuals.

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者 = 자 = People who do(Korean name: 놈 자)

This character is often placed after a noun to indicate a person that “does” what the noun describes. For example, “과학” means “science but “과학자” means scientist. “연구” means “research” but “연구자” means “researcher.” There are many words that follow this pattern.

In addition to finding this character in words like “personal,” 個 is the Hanja character for the Korean counter “개” when counting things. You can learn about this in Lesson 10 of our Korean lessons.

Common Words using this Character
個 = a counter for “things”
個人 = personal
個月 = a counter for months
個國 = counter for countries
個성 = personality

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主 = 주 = Master, main(Korean name: 임금 주, 주인 주)

主 is used in words to indicate that something is the “main” form of something. I included this character in this lesson because of its use in the word 主人, which refers to the “main person” or owner/proprietor of a house/building/business.

You can also find this character in words with “주의,” which is often combined with nouns to add the meaning of “~ism” to that noun. For example, 자본 refers to “capital,” but 자본주의 refers to “capitalism. Likewise, 사회 refers to “society,” but 사회주의 refers to “socialism.” For example: